Our Legacy
by Little Miss Flo
Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Our Legacy - Chapter 1  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

Jack was trying really, _really_ hard not to scowl at how close Narim was standing to Carter. It wasn't like she was encouraging the Tollan man after all, and he couldn't really fault the guy for his taste. But was it really necessary for him to walk them to the gate and then get right into Carter's personal space to say goodbye, all puppy-dog eyes and bleeding-heart adoration? For crying out loud, they were only going home for a few hours!

Daniel and Teal'c hadn't even bothered coming to see them off. Jack and Sam were just needed back for a quick briefing with Hammond, and then they would return and continue the informal discussions they were having with the Tollan council about an alliance.

He sighed inwardly and turned away, staring up at the gate. Being of Tollan construction rather than the usual Ancient fare, it was slightly different in appearance, with a thinner frame and sleeker design, the material a paler hue of grey. He knew it was a trick of the eye, but the thinner ring made it look from below as though the top was further away than usual, and spared a thought to wonder if it would matter if it was slightly bigger or smaller.

He heard Carter laugh, her diplomatic laugh rather than a genuine one, and turned to see her extract herself from Narim's attentions with her usual polite grace.

"We won't be long." He said to Narim. "Keep the lights on for us."

Narim inclined his head with a smile, and attended to Tollana's version of a DHD. The wormhole blossomed to life, and Jack gave Narim a half wave in farewell as he keyed in his iris code on his wrist-mounted GDO.

"Thank you, Narim. We'll be back soon." He heard Carter say, and she fell into step beside Jack as he headed for the gate.

"Do you think they're serving dinner in the commissary yet?" Jack asked just as they reached the event horizon.

They stepped into the gate, and the cold, wrenching, rushing sensation of gate travel absorbed him for a moment, before ejecting him on the other side onto the SGC's ramp.

"I think they –" Sam's reply to his question was abruptly cut short when she noticed the multitude of weapons pointed at them.

"What's with all the ordnance?" Jack asked loudly in the general direction of the control room. He could see technicians in there through the glass, but no Hammond.

The left door to the gate room slid laboriously open, and there was a sound of high heels on the concrete floor, before a tall woman in dress blues appeared through the sea of armed airmen.

"Identify yourselves." She ordered crisply. Jack's mouth dropped open, and he heard Sam gasp beside him.

Because the woman in front of him was 5'9, with eyes the colour of an active stargate, and – although clearly well into her sixties – had a face he'd recognise anywhere, at any age.

" _Carter?_ "

* * *

This was certainly not the first time Sam had come face to face with herself since joining SG-1 four years ago, but it was the first time they hadn't at least looked the same age when it happened.

The older Sam – _Lt. General_ Samantha Carter by the look of the three stars on each of her shoulders - was looking at them both with deep suspicion.

"I said, _identify_ yourselves." She ordered again.

"What, you don't recognise us?" Jack asked incredulously, earning him a glare from the General.

"Major Samantha Carter, US Air Force." Sam responded to the General's request, frowning. "And this is Colonel Jack O'Neill. But then you already knew that, didn't you?"

"You're from the past?" General Carter asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Funny, I was about to ask you the same thing." Jack said. He turned to Sam. "Carter?"

Sam tore her gaze away from her sixty-something year old doppelganger and glanced around the gate room. There were differences, now she stopped to look. The décor had been updated somewhat, the airmen currently taking aim at them were holding weapons she couldn't immediately identify, and their uniforms were unfamiliar.

"I think we've travelled to the future, sir."

"I thought after our jaunt in 1969 we fixed the gate protocols so we _wouldn't_ accidentally time travel again?"

"We fixed our gate." Sam explained. "And the Ancient's gates have protocols of their own to prevent it, but we just came through the gate the Tollan built."

"You've gated here from Tollana?" General Carter asked. "What year are you from?"

"2000." Jack answered. "Why, what year is it here?"

"2034."

Jack gave a low whistle. "Any chance you can send us back?"

General Carter shook her head, perplexed. "I wouldn't know where to begin."

She seemed to suddenly realise that the airmen were still aiming their weapons, and gestured for them to lower them. "Stand down."

"When we travelled too far into the future after leaving 1969, Cassandra met us here and sent us back with a handheld device." Sam said. "That was June 30th, 2049. I don't suppose you have that device yet, do you?"

General Carter shook her head. "No, not yet."

"Can you predict solar flares?" She tried again.

"Not with the degree of accuracy you'd need to travel back to your time, no."

Sam took a deep breath and sighed. The colonel looked at her and raised his eyebrows. "Carter?"

"We're stuck here, sir."


	2. Chapter 2

**Our Legacy - Chapter 2  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

General Sam Carter had them escorted to the infirmary, and ordered a battery of tests to make sure they weren't clones, robots, or any other wacky brand of imposter. Tests run and blood drawn, they were then taken to a holding room, and left alone, save for the guards outside the door, for over an hour.

"What's taking so long?" Jack grumbled.

"Your guess is as good as mine sir." Sam answered.

Jack turned to her speculatively. "Except it's not, is it? She's _you_. Why would you put your time travelling past self in a room and ignore … yourself?"

Sam gestured uselessly. "I don't know, sir. She's a three-star general and twice my age. I'm a little out of my depth."

Jack sighed and dropped onto one of the bunk beds. After a moment he looked over at Sam, sitting at the table, and smirked. "Pretty cool to know you're going to be a three-star general one day, huh?"

Sam smiled in spite of the circumstances, ducking her head. "Yeah, it's pretty cool."

"Not at all surprising though."

"Thank you, sir." Sam said, flattered.

"So, how 'stuck' are we exactly? I mean, between the two of you, you'll figure something out, right?"

Sam frowned in consternation. "I hope so. Right now I don't have any ideas, but I would hope that in 34 years, my older self will have come across something that can help."

"Wait a second." Jack sat up, waving his hands. "She's the future you, right? So … shouldn't she have your memories of what happens now?"

Sam nodded. "Yes, I thought of that. Theoretically this happened to her thirty-four years ago in her past, and she should remember how exactly she got home. I mean, the fact that she's here in 2034 looking like an older me indicates that she must have succeeded in returning to her own time."

"I sense a 'but'."

" _But_ … she looked surprised to see us. And when we asked her if she could send us back, she said she wouldn't know where to begin."

"Maybe she's lying."

"Why would I – she – lie about that?"

Jack huffed, frustrated. "So what's the bottom line here, Carter?"

"The bottom line is, I don't how it's possible, but it seemed like she hadn't been through this in her own timeline, and if that's the case, then she won't necessarily know how to send us home."

There was silence for a moment while they both absorbed this. "Well, crap." Jack said.

"Yes sir." Sam agreed wholeheartedly.

* * *

After three hours cooling their heels in a holding cell, when Jack had surpassed the pacing, tearing his hair out stage of impatience and had progressed into a still, sullen temper, General Carter sent for them.

They were taken to the briefing room, where they took their usual seats, and a moment later General Carter joined them, sitting in Hammond's chair. _Her own chair, actually_ , Jack supposed.

"My apologies for keeping you waiting." She started. "Have you had any thoughts about how this might have happened?" She directed the question to her younger self.

"Well, my best guess is still that the wormhole encountered a solar flare, due to Tollana's gate not having built in safeguards against that. But, if this didn't happen to you, I'm not sure how this is even possible."

The general shrugged, clearly at a loss. "I think I'd remember travelling forward in time and meeting myself."

"Right. Except, if I have travelled forward in my own timeline, surely my future self should have my memories."

An unfamiliar expression crossed General Carter's face. "Maybe someone has interfered with the timeline. Or perhaps this is not _your_ future."

Sam looked flummoxed. "You're suggesting we travelled both forward in time _and_ to an alternate reality?"

Alarm bells rang in Jack's head. "Is that possible?"

"Theoretically … maybe. But it's incredibly unlikely."

"Well, I've made quite a few enemies over the years, some with impressive resourcefulness. Maybe an enemy of mine travelled back in time to interfere with your time stream. They might have been hoping that the solar flare would destroy the wormhole or its contents." General Carter suggested.

Sam nodded slowly, thinking.

"So … how does this help us get back?" Jack asked, trying to get the conversation onto more useful ground.

"It doesn't." General Carter answered. Jack waited, but she didn't elaborate.

"What, no theories, thoughts, ideas … half-baked plans?"

General Carter gave him a sharp look, and he suddenly got the chilly sensation that even though this woman had his Carter's face, he didn't know her at all.

"I can give you a lab, and whatever resources you need – within reason – to figure out how to get back to your time." She said to Sam.

She stood, and raised her eyebrows when Jack and Sam didn't immediately leap to their own feet. Jack offered her a wry smirk in apology as they belatedly stood. "Sorry. It's a lot to get used to."

"Well, hopefully you won't need to get too used to it." She said frostily, and returned to their office.

Jack stared after her for a moment and then gave his Carter a look of perplexed concern. "Does she seem … _off_ … to you?"

Sam nodded slowly, watching her older self through the General's office window. "Maybe we caught her on a bad day."

Jack snorted. "Carter, on your worst day you're not that bad."

"Thirty-four years is a long time. Maybe something happened to change her."

"Yeah. _Maybe_." But Jack still couldn't shake the bad feeling in his gut. Something wasn't right, and his gut was rarely wrong.

* * *

Two hours later, Sam and Jack were situated in a science lab, Sam at the desk pouring over gate diagnostics, and the telemetry of the incoming wormhole that had spat them out thirty-four years in the future.

Jack was bored. There was really very little he could contribute to the exercise, and he wasn't being trusted to roam freely around the base. He was lounging back in a chair, fiddling with a paperclip, trying very hard not to disturb his 2IC as she worked.

He was more than a little relieved when a third person appeared in the doorway, breaking the silence. It was a tall young woman in a black pant-suit and a lab coat, with her long blonde hair pulled back in a braid which fell over her shoulder. She stared at them both for a moment with an expression of amazement.

"Hello." Jack offered when the staring started to freak him out.

Sam looked up from the flat, desk-mounted computer and noticed the young woman with a puzzled frown.

"Hi. I hear you've got yourselves a bit displaced in time, and wondered if you'd like some help." She offered with a nervous smile.

"You're a physicist?" Sam asked, standing.

"I am."

"Well I could certainly use any help you can give." Sam said ruefully. "I'm Major Samantha Carter."

"Major." The woman shook Sam's hand with a smile. "I'm Beth."

"Just 'Beth'?" Jack asked.

"And you must be Colonel Jack O'Neill." Beth said, turning to Jack and shaking his hand too. "You'll have to forgive me for staring, it's just not everyday that you meet time travellers."

"Inadvertent time travellers, I assure you." Jack said. "We were just trying to get home as usual."

Beth nodded, and went to look at the gate diagnostics on Sam's work station. "General Carter said you were attempting a straight-forward journey back from Tollana to Earth, in the year 2000?"

"That's right. There was no sign of any unusual gate activity on our end prior to travelling, but then of course Tollana's gate is unusual in and of itself, not being of Ancient manufacture." Sam said.

"You think that might be the source of the problem?"

"We know that time travel can occur if a wormhole passes too close to a sun emitting a solar flare." Sam said. "It happened once to us when we travelled from the SGC's gate. On that occasion we didn't reach our destination planet at all, but were bounced back through to the SGC, in 1969."

"Right. But when you used General Hammond's date and time of another solar flare to travel forward again, you overshot and ended up in the SGC in 2049, at which point Cassie had to send you back." Beth said.

Sam's jaw dropped a little in surprise.

Beth shrugged self-consciously. "I read the report."

"Anyway," Sam continued, "my point is on that occasion we were using Earth's dialling computer to make the connection. We theorised that the Ancient-built DHDs compensate for the risk of solar flare by blocking dangerous connections. The risk only exists for a short window of time anyway, due to the relative positioning of the two planets with the gates in relation to other massive celestial bodies. I'm thinking that, much like our own dialling computer at the time of our previous … mishap, the Tollan gate doesn't have those safeguards."

Beth nodded. "It's a good theory."

"Unfortunately it doesn't offer up much by way of ideas to get us home." Sam said with a sigh.

"No." Beth took a deep breath. "But I might be able to help you with that."

Jack perked up immediately. "Oh?"

Beth looked visibly nervous. "It's a little … sensitive. I can't discuss it openly here."

Jack met Sam's eyes, eyebrows raised. "Really."

"I'll try and visit you tonight during the night shift. I'll explain everything then." She took a few quick steps towards the door, before turning suddenly and giving Jack an intense, unreadable look. She smiled resignedly. "I'll see you tonight."

And then she was gone.

Jack shared a look of bafflement with Sam. "What the hell is going on here?"

* * *

That evening, after a quick meal in the commissary during which Jack and Sam garnered many curious stares, they were shown to guest quarters. It was very similar to the VIP rooms in their own SGC.

Right down to the solitary double bed.

"Ah, where's my room?" Jack called to the retreating back of the airman who'd shown them into the room. The airman gave him a weird look. "We assumed you'd want to share, sir."

Jack eyebrows flew into his hairline. "You did?"

He felt Sam's hand on his arm suddenly, and she stepped close enough to whisper to him. "Sir, we should actually stay together, if Beth's going to come and find us during the night."

He shook his head, trying to clear some of the bewilderment he'd been feeling almost constantly since landing in this bizarre future, and gestured to the airman. "Sharing is fine. That'll be all, airman."

The door shut behind them, and Jack waited a moment before opening it a fraction and peeking out. An airman at the end of the hall stirred on seeing him, and Jack raised a hand in apology before closing the door again.

"One guard out in the hall, but the door's not locked. You think this 'Beth' girl can manage the guard?"

"I hope so." Sam said. "I'd really like to hear what she's got to say."

"You know, there is nothing about this situation that isn't weird." Jack said in frustration. "We randomly travel thirty years into the future …"

"Thirty-four." Sam corrected automatically.

"Right, thirty-four years. Your future self doesn't offer a single idea on how it happened or how to fix it, nor does she offer to help you figure it out, and frankly she wasn't acting like you at all. This 'Beth' character – who avoids giving her full name – offers help but says she can only do it in secret, all cloak-and-dagger in the middle of the night. And that guard out there _assumed we'd prefer to share._ What the hell?"

"It's pretty weird." Sam agreed, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "That's why I want to talk to Beth later, hopefully she can give us some answers."

Jack huffed in dissatisfaction with the whole situation. "We should sleep in shifts, in case Beth turns up. I'll take first watch, you get some shut eye."

"Yes sir."

He settled himself into the room's easy chair while Carter took herself off to the bathroom.

' _We assumed you'd want to share'_ , the airman had said. _What the hell did that mean?_


	3. Chapter 3

**Our Legacy - Chapter 3  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

Beth arrived a little after midnight, slipping silently into the room and then peering around wide-eyed, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

"Over here." Jack said quietly from the sitting area. "Carter's asleep, give me a minute to wake her up."

Beth perched on the desk, while Jack stood, shaking his legs to wake his stiff joints. He turned on a lamp, and crossed to the bed.

"Wakey wakey Carter." He said, nudging her shoulder. She jumped awake, startled, and then blinked at him in the low light created by the lamp.

"She's here." He told her. Sam looked over to Beth, who gave her a little wave in greeting.

"I'm awake." Sam announced sleepily. Jack smirked fondly and backed off, returning to his chair.

A few moments later, in her Air Force standard issue pyjamas, Sam sat down in the chair next to his, curling her legs under her. They both looked to the young woman in front of them expectantly.

"Ok. I have a lot to tell you, and some of it's pretty messed up, but the good news is I can get you home – or at least, I know someone who can."

Sam perked up a little in her seat. "Who?"

Beth grinned. "You, actually."

Sam blinked at her, completely confused.

Jack chuckled. "Take pity on her, she only just woke up." He chided the girl.

"Ok, not _you_ you. The you from the present. My present, your future. The you from 2034."

"She said she didn't know how to get us home." Sam argued.

Beth grimaced. "Yeah … that wasn't her."

Both air force officers gaped at her. "Come again?"

"She's an imposter. The real General Samantha Carter was taken prisoner months ago. The woman you spoke to yesterday was an agent who trained for several years to replace her convincingly, using a device that lets her alter her outward appearance."

"Aha! I knew it! I knew something wasn't right with her!" Jack crowed.

"I imagine she wasn't too happy to see you." Beth agreed with a smile. "If anyone was going to see through the ruse it was probably going to be you."

"But you did." Sam pointed out.

"That's different, I had some warning. Maybe I should start at the beginning." She pulled out the desk chair and sat facing them. "The fake General Carter told you yesterday that she didn't travel to the future as you have done, correct?"

"Yes." Sam confirmed.

"The truth is, the real Sam Carter did. She and … and _Jack_ just didn't report it. When they got back to their own time they made sure there was no official record of them having time travelled, so that the fake General Carter in 2034 wouldn't be expecting it."

"Oh thank God for that." Sam exclaimed. "I was tying my brain in knots trying to figure out how it was even possible for this not to have happened to her too."

Beth grinned. "She said you'd like that."

"So she – the real Carter – warned you that this would happen, that we'd show up from the past?" Jack asked.

"Yes. I'm the only person she told. The truth is, Earth is in some trouble at the moment. The people who took her are very powerful, and very dangerous. They're replacing key people in positions of power with their own agents, who study their targets' lives, mannerisms, thought processes … etcetera, and then use 'mimic' devices to perfectly replicate the target's outward appearance. It's all in an effort to – basically – take over the world."

"Seriously?"

"It's a little more complicated and less melodramatic than that, but yes, pretty much."

"Wait, if the real General Carter has my memories, she must have known this was coming – that she'd be captured and replaced." Sam said. "Why didn't she just stop it from happening?"

Beth frowned and twisted her hands together nervously. "We tried. We took all sorts of precautions, but we just didn't have enough information. The person who replaced her is a pro, who literally studied her and nothing else for years in order to imitate her flawlessly. I'm ashamed to admit I'm still not a hundred percent certain when exactly they replaced her."

"The best she could do was to tell me everything, so that I could keep watch for you and then enlist your help to free her. I'm the only one she told because there are so many people who have been replaced now, that she didn't know who she could trust."

"And she knows how to get us home?" Jack asked.

Beth nodded. "She had thirty years to search the galaxy discreetly for the device Cassie will use to send you home in 2049. She found it."

"And of course, she knew she would be able to find it, because when she was in my position …"

"… the General Carter she encountered had found it. Exactly."

"Oy." Jack grouched, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes.

"It's a little complicated, I know." Beth sympathised. "But it really is good news. You now have absolute proof that you will be going back to your own time."

"I don't suppose she gave you any details about exactly how we could find her and free her, did she?" Sam asked.

Beth grinned. "As a matter of fact, she did."

"And you haven't tried to rescue her yourself, because …?" Jack asked.

Beth's smile faded abruptly. "She forbade me to. Things have to happen in exactly the same way that they happened for her last time around. That's the other reason she only told me – she trusted me not to ruin the timeline."

"And why exactly did she trust you with all of this?" Jack asked. "Who are you?"

Beth squirmed a little, a torn expression on her face as she looked between Jack and Sam.

"I'm her daughter."

* * *

Sam stared at the girl who would be her daughter in shock.

"How old are you?" She asked.

"That falls into the category of things I'm not allowed to tell you." Beth hedged. "If I did, you could count backwards and figure out when you're going to get pregnant with me, and … well, I'd really like to avoid ruining the timeline in such a way that I never get born."

"That's fair enough."

Sam wanted desperately to know who Beth's father was, but held herself back from asking, afraid the answer wouldn't be the one she wanted.

Jack cleared his throat. "So, how and when are you going to get us out of here, so that we can go and rescue your mother?"

"That part is relatively easy. They've got you under a very light guard, so we just need to employ a little subterfuge so you can give them the slip. I already have something arranged, for 0700 tomorrow morning. I'll knock on your door a few minutes before 0700 to pick you up for breakfast, and then there will be a distraction, and you can get away from the guards. Then we escape up through the emergency access hatch."

"This distraction - are there other people involved?" Jack asked.

Beth nodded. "Once you arrived here and there was no longer any risk to the timeline if we acted too soon, I was able to brief my brother and my cousin on the situation, and they will be helping us from now on."

"Your brother?" Sam asked, with a squeak that she hoped the colonel hadn't noticed.

"Oh! Right, yeah, I have a brother. Jake. He's a Lieutenant in the Air Force. The other person helping us is Serena Jackson. She's who I meant when I said my 'cousin', although we're not blood-related. She's Daniel's daughter."

"Are you sure it's not going to cause any problems if the three of you suddenly go AWOL?" Jack asked.

"Jake's the only one of us who's Air Force, and Mom assured me he'd be cleared of any wrong-doing once we've rescued her. Trust me, she'd never have told me to involve him if it would hurt his career. Serena and I are civilians, so we'll be fine."

"Let me guess – she's an archaeologist!" Jack said with a grin.

"Anthropologist, actually."

"D'oh!"

"Who's her mother?" Sam asked curiously.

"Oh, you haven't met her yet. I shouldn't really say." Beth said with an apologetic look.

"Still, it's nice to know that Daniel ends up with someone." Jack said. "Where is he these days anyway? And Teal'c?"

"Daniel works for the IOA – The International Oversight Advisory – as an archaeologist. He studies artefacts that come back from other planets, occasionally goes out himself on digs, and he has a hand in training new SGC teams in first contact situations and cultural sensitivity – although Serena's started taking over that in recent years. Teal'c … Teal'c is dead. I'm sorry I can't tell you when or how."

There was a beat of silence while they absorbed this.

"Listen, um, there's something else. Mom said that until I'd explained everything to you, I should hold this back, but that there was no point keeping it from you in the long run because it would be bound to come up one way or another." She looked uneasily between the two of them. "I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice that I haven't yet told you my last name."

"I'm assuming it's not 'Carter'." Jack guessed.

"No, it's not." She took a deep breath, and then looked straight at Jack. "My full name is Dr Elizabeth O'Neill. My little brother is Lt. Jacob O'Neill."

Sam looked at Jack in shock. He was staring straight at Beth. "O'Neill?" He repeated in a choked voice. "With two 'L's?"

Beth smirked, and suddenly Sam couldn't believe she hadn't seen the resemblance before. The girl even had Jack's eyes. "You betcha. Hi Dad. It's really great to see you again."

Sam felt her stomach drop a little bit. "Again?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Dad, you died prior to 2034."

Sam watched Jack's face, but saw only calm resignation there. "Figures. I'd be nearly eighty if I had been alive still. I never felt like the type who would live forever."

"I'm sure you understand that I can't tell you how much prior to 2034 …"

Jack waved her off. "Don't sweat it, I get it. So … you're my kid, and you're Carter's kid. As in …"

"You were married. Happily."

He glanced at Sam for the first time since Beth had dropped the bombshell that she was _theirs_. "So, I guess we have that to look forward to." He said with a small soft smile. Sam's heart skipped a beat and her mouth went dry.

"Yeah, on that note, Dad, do me a favour and tread carefully when you see Mom. She misses you a lot, and I think seeing you again is going to be hard for her."

Sam looked down at her hands, determinedly avoiding Jack's gaze.

"I'll do my best."

"I know you have recent some experience with that anyway, from when the alternate Sam Carter came through the quantum mirror – she was a recent widow of the alternate Jack O'Neill, right?"

"Have you read all of our mission reports?" Sam asked, impressed.

"Of course I have. All of the ones up till your trip to 2034 anyway. I wanted to be prepared."

"Of course you did." Jack smirked. He nudged Sam with his elbow. "I wonder who she gets _that_ from?"

Sam rolled her eyes and shared a grin with Beth.

The girl looked at her watch suddenly, and stood. "I have to go, or I'll be stuck in here for another two hours until the next exit window. I should let you get some sleep anyway. We'll have a long day tomorrow."

Jack and Sam stood too, and the three stood in an awkward family unit.

"See you tomorrow." Jack said after a long moment.

Beth smiled. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Sam replied.

Beth opened the door and slipped out.

Jack and Sam stayed standing side by side, looking at the door.

"So." Jack said.

"So." Sam echoed.

"Married with two kids."

"Apparently."

"Sweet."


	4. Chapter 4

**Our Legacy - Chapter 4  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

The next morning, Beth knocked on their door at 0659. Jack opened the door blinking at the harsh light of the corridor.

"Good morning." She greeted them cheerfully, entering the room and shutting the door behind her.

"I see you're a morning person." Jack grouched. "Like Carter."

"Don't worry, Jake's a grouch in the morning too." She teased him. "Are you ready? For _breakfast_?"

"The word breakfast shouldn't sound so sinister. Even if it is code for a cunning escape plan." Jack complained.

"We're ready." Sam answered as she came out of the bathroom. "What do we have to do?"

"Just follow my lead."

They followed her out of the room and through the corridors of the SGC, the lone guard assigned to them following closely. They took the elevator to the commissary level, which was very busy at this hour, and Beth literally bumped into a woman coming out of the commissary at speed.

"Oh! I'm so sorry Serena, I didn't see you there." Beth apologised.

Jack looked at the other woman sharply at the mention of the name. She was tall too, like Beth, but had a tiny frame and long, thick black hair.

"It's fine sweetie, don't worry about it. Oh – hi Josh." Serena's attention was now fully fixed on the one guard who had escorted them up to breakfast. She sashayed towards him with a swing of her hips and a winning smile. "How's the football injury?"

Jack gaped as Daniel Jackson's grown up daughter started flirting outrageously with their guard. He would have stayed there gawking longer, if Beth hadn't tugged urgently on his sleeve. He turned his attention back to her, and, following her lead, slipped away as a couple of groups of people left the commissary, swarming around them. Free of the crowd of people, the three of them moved quickly through a familiar set of corridors until they reached the access shaft. Beth keyed in a code, and the door swung open with a loud grating complaint.

She climbed in, followed by Sam, and Jack took up the rear, pulling the shaft door closed behind him. Then, they climbed. Twenty-plus floors of ladder. He had to admire his daughter's stamina, especially considering she wasn't Air Force trained.

When they finally reached the top, Beth took out a cellphone, and placed a call, letting it ring three times before she hung up.

It was clearly a signal to someone on the other side, as the hatch above them opened in response. A young man in his early twenties with the same blonde hair and brown eyes as Beth, appeared in the circle of open sky above them. "All clear." He said.

They climbed out in turn, and Beth introduced the grinning young man.

"This is Jake, my brother. Jake … Major Samantha Carter and Colonel Jack O'Neill, from the year 2000."

"Awesome." He grinned. "Hi guys."

"Hi." Jack responded, a little overwhelmed by meeting his son.

"Jake?" Beth prompted when her brother had just stood grinning at the younger versions of his parents for a moment.

"Right! Sorry. I've got a car waiting, about a mile that way." He pointed. "Are we waiting for Serena?"

"No, she's going to make her own way to the house."

"Where are we going?" Jack asked.

"My place." Beth answered. "I have a house about ten miles away. It's a twenty minute drive, once we reach the car."

They started hiking through the woods, away from the base.

"I disabled the GPS, and I'll log in as an anonymous user so they can't immediately trace the car – but even so it won't take them long to figure out it was us, so we shouldn't stay at your place for too long." Jake warned.

"I know. We'll just pick up the gear, meet Serena, and then move to the safe-house."

"You've got secure transportation to get to the safe-house?" Jack asked.

"We have. It's Asgard beaming technology. Mom arranged it in advance, and she made it completely untraceable. But it will only work once, and we all have to be together, with everything we need, ready to go."

"The Asgard know about this?" Sam asked.

Beth shot her an uncertain look, the same look she got every time she had to reveal something new about the future. "No, the Asgard shared the technology with Earth a while back."

"Cool." Jack commented.

"Very cool." Sam agreed. "I don't suppose I could …"

"Nice try, Mom. You know there's no way we can let you get too close a look at any technology while you're here. It could muck up the timeline." Jake said teasingly.

Sam flushed, whether at being called 'Mom' or being caught out in trying to get a sneaky look at the Asgard technology, Jack wasn't sure.

Beth's cellphone rang and she whipped it out of her pocket and answered it. Jack snorted in amusement at Sam craning her neck subtly to try and get a good look at the device, which looked nothing like the cellphones of the year 2000.

"Ok, see you later." Beth hung up the call. "That was Serena, she's out of the SGC, and now she's making her way through the checkpoints outside the mountain. She thinks she'll be about a half hour."

"She'll get there around the same time as us." Jake commented.

"The stargate and the SGC is public knowledge, so security is significantly tighter around the mountain than it was in your time." Beth told them.

"They went public?" Jack asked. "How did that go?"

"It was … messy." Beth said.

"There was a war." Jake added. "The stargate program as a whole isn't run by the US military anymore, the International Oversight Advisory is in control. Because of the USAF's extensive experience at the SGC, the majority of personnel involved in the operation of the actual SGC are still USAF, but there are units from other countries' militaries there too, and ultimately Mom – General Carter – has to answer to the IOA, not the President of the United States. And Atlantis is purely international."

He stopped when Beth punched him lightly in the shoulder. " _Jake._ Ix-nay on the Lantis-Atlay."

"Oh. Right, sorry. Anyway, the upshot is an organisation called the Tau'ri Unification Movement rose up out of the ashes of the war, originally out of a coalition of the countries who hadn't known about the Stargate before it went public, and who didn't subsequently have a seat at the IOA's table. Their original mandate was to replace the IOA or at least campaign for it's organisational structure to change, so that there was proportionate representation for all the countries in the world."

"That doesn't sound too unreasonable." Sam said.

"No, it doesn't. Except its leadership was very quickly taken over by a mixture of corrupt corporations and rogue militias, and is heavily sponsored by the Chinese government – the Chinese and the Americans being the main aggressors in the aforementioned war. Now, the T.U.M. is very bad news, and isn't really trying to get fair representation at all. It's just a vehicle for some very powerful and very corrupt people to seize more power over the stargates, and the technology that gets developed via the Stargate Program."

"It sounds like the rogue NID on steroids." Jack commented, sharing an alarmed look with Sam.

"It's the T.U.M. who are replacing people in positions of power." Beth explained. "They're the ones who have Mom. Our job is to rescue her, so she can expose them."

"And then send you home." Jake added.

Jack thought for a moment as they hiked. "Listen, not that I'm not on board with saving _General_ Carter, and saving the world from bad guys, but is there a reason why you need us for this? If you have the device to send us home, and you have all the intel to break Carter out of the T.U.M.'s grubby paws yourself, why not just let us go home?"

Beth stopped walking, and the others followed suit. "Honestly? We need you because we're out of our depth. We – me, Jake and Serena – we're all in our twenties without any experience of this sort of situation, and Jake's the only one who even has any combat training. We can't tell anyone else about this because we don't know who's been replaced, or who we can trust. If we took this on ourselves, with just the three of us … we might get her back, or we might completely screw it up and get ourselves killed. This is the safety of the entire planet we're talking about, there's too much at stake not to press every advantage, and you two are the biggest advantage we're going to get."

"Not to mention the fact that Mom already knows that this is how it's supposed to go down, because she's been through this all before, when she was … _you_." He gestured haphazardly to Sam.

Jack sighed, and looked at Sam for a quick, wordless conversation. "Ok, we're in."

Beth blew out a harsh breath of relief. "Good. Let's keep moving."


	5. Chapter 5

**Our Legacy - Chapter 5  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

The car was a marvel to behold. It ran smoothly and silently, and didn't run on gas, although quite what it did run on was a mystery. The driver's seat – or the modern equivalent – was missing the usual steering wheel, hand brake, foot pedals, gear stick etc, and just had some sort of computer user interface. When asked, Beth explained that all cars on public roads were now self-driving. Although impressed by the technology, Sam wasn't entirely sure she liked it – it made her think fondly of her beloved Volvo, and her motorcycle, and of the adrenaline rush of being in absolute control of a vehicle at speed. Beth explained that those still existed, but were only driven now as a hobby, and only on race tracks or private roads.

Other than the cars, a few new buildings, and some changes to road layouts, there was little visible difference between this Colorado Springs and the one of her own time. They even drove passed her house, which had a different fence at the front, but was very much still there. The park opposite had been remodelled beyond recognition though.

They arrived at Beth's house, a small, detached, two-storey property with a garage at the side. Jake hit a command on the computer screen and the garage door slid open smoothly, and the car pulled to a stop inside, the doors retracting to the floor automatically. Beth touched a panel on the interior wall of the garage, and the garage door slid closed again, and she led them into the house via an internal side-door.

Sam walked slowly, looking around and absorbing everything. The walls had panels of colour, the floors were hardwood, and there was a huge amount of natural light – more than it seemed there ought to be given the size of the windows – and it bounced around the shiny, white surfaces with abandon, making the rooms seem much bigger than they were.

"Nice digs." Jack commented from behind her.

Beth grinned at Jack over her shoulder. "Thanks. Make yourself at home."

Sam wandered into the living room, and was drawn to the framed photographs on the wall like a moth to a flame. She felt Jack's presence at her side a moment later.

"Well, at least we know I don't die right after they're born." He commented after a moment, gesturing to a picture of the four of them, when Beth and Jake were teenagers.

"We probably shouldn't be looking at these." Sam said in an undertone.

"I don't think a few photographs are going to screw up the timeline."

"It's weird, isn't it? Knowing in advance …"

"Very weird." Jack agreed.

A wedding photo caught her eye – her wedding to Jack.

"Huh." Jack chuckled. "It's like the one from the alternate reality."

"What?" Sam asked, confused.

"The wedding photo. The alternate you, Dr Carter, she had a wedding photo, and it was just like that one. Well, mostly, I mean obviously we were younger and your dress was different, but apart from that …"

She glanced away from it to look at him, and he caught her eye for a moment and smiled. Her breath caught in her chest as she smiled back, and they had a moment of eternity as their gazes held, heat and longing and tenderness passing between them.

"I'd tell you guys to get a room, but I know you're not allowed to yet, so just stick it back in your pants." Beth teased from behind them, making Sam jump.

"Beth!" She admonished. "She clearly gets her mouth from you." She added to Jack reproachfully.

"Carter! You wound me." He said clutching his chest dramatically.

The doorbell rang, and Beth dashed away, as Sam exchanged a rueful look with Jack for having gotten caught out having a moment.

Jake wandered in from the kitchen, as they heard Beth greeting Serena at the front door. The girls came back a moment later.

"Hi, we haven't officially met yet. I'm Serena. Dr Serena Jackson." The dark-haired young woman said as she entered the room, giving Sam and Jack each in turn a quick hug and kiss on the cheek.

"So you're Daniel's kid?" Jack said.

"Yup." She smiled widely. "Although most people say I'm more like my mom."

"Now that we're all here, we should move to the safe-house." Beth said. "I've got clothes and supplies ready in bags in the hall, I need you all holding the bags, and standing close to me in the living room."

They collected the duffel bags obediently, and congregated around Beth, who had in her hands a small, flat, tablet-like device. She beckoned them all closer still, so they were packed together tightly.

"Everyone ready?" She asked. They all nodded. "Ok, here goes."

There was a flash, and Sam felt the air against her cheeks and hands suddenly chill.

"Bloody hell it's cold." Serena exclaimed, dropping her bags and rubbing her hands together.

"Where are we?" Jake asked.

"Canada." Beth answered simply.

Sam put her own bags down and turned in a circle, taking in her surroundings. They were in what looked like an abandoned warehouse, huge and bare. There was a metal staircase along one wall leading to an upper level, and Beth headed for it.

"The living quarters are upstairs. It'll be warmer up there." She told them, and the group followed her up. The upstairs did look a little more homey, with an open plan kitchen and living area, couches, desks with computers, a few mattresses piled high with blankets and a dozen bedrolls.

Beth had them go through the bags, sorting and storing the clothing and food. Then she called them over to the sitting area, and fiddled with a computer and projector.

"Mom recorded a video message for me to show you all once we got here." She explained, and sat down next to Sam, pointing a remote at the computer.

Sam found herself looking at an image of her own face – plus thirty odd extra years of mileage – projected onto the white wall in front of them in excellent resolution.

"Hi. As Beth should have explained to you by now, I am the real General Samantha Carter. At the time of recording this message, it is June 12th, 2032. By the time you see this, I will have been kidnapped and replaced by an imposter, who is running the SGC in my stead.

"On March 31st, in the year 2000, myself and Colonel Jack O'Neill accidentally travelled forward in time to September 8th, 2034. On September 9th, 2034, I found myself sitting where you are now, in a safe-house in Canada, watching this video message. Sam – if you're trying to memorise it, stop. Trust me when I say you'll end up recording this exact message regardless of whether you try to or not."

The General had said that with a grin, and the others looked at Sam with smirks and raised eyebrows. She put down the notepad she'd been making shorthand notes in sheepishly.

"As Beth will have explained to you, I have the device used by Cassandra in the year 2049 to send SG-1 back to their own time, and you can use it to get home. However, first I have a somewhat selfish request to make. I need you to rescue me.

"I don't know for certain exactly when I will be kidnapped, and unfortunately when you find me I will be unable to remember the details of my kidnapping due to a head injury, so I won't be able to tell you when it happened – which means, Sam, you yourself will have the same difficulties in preventing it from happening that I am facing now in 2032.

"However, that doesn't matter. All you need to do is get me out of there and back to the safehouse. The device you need to get home is there – it is in a safe under the floorboards in the north-east corner of the ground-floor warehouse. The code for the safe is Charlie's birthday." She felt Jack flinch.

"In the safe you will also find my instructions on how to operate it. Once you have used it to open the stargate, it is imperative that you leave it here in 2034, so that Cassie can use it when the time comes in 2049.

"If memory serves, you will have already asked Beth why we need you to do this rather than just taking the device now and going home, but I will explain anyway. Beth, Jake and Serena need your help. They need your experience and skills. I don't know who else has been taken and replaced, and so I can't trust anyone else. If I am not rescued, I can't expose the T.U.M.'s corruption to the world. I'm asking for your help, so that my children – _your_ children – and Serena aren't in any more danger than they need to be.

"Serena, I must also ask that you not discuss this with your mother and father. I can't be completely certain that Daniel and your mother haven't been replaced as I have been. It's unlikely, as neither of them are in positions of particular power, but I don't want you taking the risk, just in case. Once I'm back with you, we will find out for certain, I promise."

"I have left a detailed plan of the rescue mission on the computers in this room, and there is a hard copy in the safe. I've had thirty years to work on it, so hopefully it should cover all the angles, and of course I have the added benefit of having done it already myself when I was in your position.

"All that there is left to say is thank you, good luck, and I'll see you soon." The General smiled, deepening the wrinkles around her mouth and eyes, and the message ended.


	6. Chapter 6

**Our Legacy - Chapter 6  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

"So she's in London." Jake concluded, after the five had sat in silence reading the rescue plan for twenty minutes. "I suppose that's a relief."

"You have no idea." Beth said with feeling. "Mom never told me where she was going to be held. All this time I've been imagining she was being kept in some hellhole in a poverty-stricken, lawless country."

Jack privately thought that if General Carter was being secretly held by an evil organisation, it was unlikely her captors would treat her better just because she was in the UK rather than Iraq or Syria or some-such similar place, but elected to keep that thought to himself. He stood, stretching the kinks out of his muscles, and faced the other four.

"So, I assume it goes without saying that I'll be in command of the rescue mission."

Of the four of them, only Carter seemed to accept this statement without question. Beth raised her eyebrows at him. "No offense, Dad, but you're thirty-four years out of date. I think Jake should lead."

"What? But he's a kid. He doesn't even shave yet." Serena argued.

"Hey! I do too shave, thank you _very_ much Serena!" Jake protested.

"Quiet." Jack ordered in his best Commanding Officer voice, and they all immediately fell silent and looked at him attentively. He smirked. "You just proved my point. None of you have any leadership experience, let alone any experience in this sort of behind-enemy-lines rescue mission. This is my show – I'm in command. I will be relying on you guys for advice on any freaky future-related crap, though."

"You mean freaky, future-related crap like how the security systems in the T.U.M's London office building work?" Beth asked sarcastically.

"Exactly." Jack said. "But you give me the information, and I call the shots. Are we clear?"

This time the three youngsters all mumbled agreement.

"Better." He said. "Now, it says in here that we're supposed to dress as security guards. Do we have uniforms around here anywhere?"

"In that closet." Beth answered. "Along with security passes and the standard equipment."

"Weapons?"

"You can't carry guns in England." Sam said, then looked uncertainly at the others. "At least, I assume that's still the case …"

Beth nodded. "I went through the gear Mom has left for us when we first got here. There are radios, zip ties, and pepper spray. No guns, no knives … no other weapons."

"Which is fine, because this rescue plan doesn't call for any of those." Serena said, gesturing to her computer screen. "You won't need to shoot anyone, it's all covert."

"I'd still feel a lot better if we were prepared for trouble." Jack said unhappily. "We _are_ walking right into the lion's den, after all."

"We have to trust that my future self knows what she's doing." Sam said. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, and she shrugged. "She's done this before; if we needed weapons I'm sure she would have given them to us. And for all we know they might have the means to detect any offensive weaponry, in which case it could give us away the moment we set foot in the building."

Jack growled in his throat in reluctant agreement. "Fine. No weapons. But I want you two to do a little self-defence training before we go anywhere." He said, pointing at Beth and Serena.

They both rolled their eyes at him.

"Please, you don't think our parents haven't been drilling us on self-defence since before we could walk?" Serena asked scathingly. "I'd bet you fifty creds that I could deck you in a fair fight."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "You think you could take me?"

"She probably could, Dad. She's got scary moves." Jake said with an apprehensive look at the tall, dark haired young woman, who had a challenging look in her eye.

"And what about you?" Jack asked, looking at his future-daughter.

"I can fight." Beth answered. "Dad, bear in mind that you and Mom have known this day was coming for our entire lives. You've already spent a couple of decades preparing us for it, even if we didn't know it. We're ready."

"She's got a point." Sam said quietly, and he turned to meet her eye. "We would have prepared them for it, wouldn't we?"

Jack couldn't help the warm tingle that ran through him at her use of the word 'we'. He really liked the thought that one day they would be a 'we'.

"Still, we'll do a few sparring rounds later on. Just think of it as a warm up for the real thing."

The assembled group accepted this without complaint.

"What time is it now in London?" Jack asked.

Sam looked at her watch. "Almost 1800 hours."

"Ok, the plan calls for us to go just after midnight. Let's go over the plan in detail, and then we'll have a few hours to rest before we go."

* * *

Jack lay awake on a mattress, staring at the ceiling and listening to the others breathe.

It was a good plan. It smacked of Carter, and her multi-track mind brilliance, but he liked to think it had his own fingerprints in it too.

The General had prepared another pair of Asgard transporter teleports, the first to get them all to London, and the second to get them back to the safe-house again after they'd located the General. This time the transports would be keyed to some subcutaneous transmitters, which they had had to inject into their upper-arms before bunking down for a couple of hours' rest. The plan was to find the General, inject a transmitter into her, and then Beth would beam the six of them out.

That was only half of it though. He and Jake would take care of finding the General, but Carter and Beth had another job to do. They would get into the building's server room, and download files that implicated the Tau'ri Unification Movement. General Carter would then present the data as evidence alongside her own testimony as a former prisoner, to the leadership of the I.O.A., hopefully spurring an investigation that would tear down the T.U.M. entirely.

Dr Serena Jackson, to his surprise, had been given the pivotal role in the rescue plan. Apparently Daniel had raised a very impressive and talented young woman, who could indeed deck him in a fair fight, much to his earlier chagrin.

He checked his watch again, and sat up. Sam was sleeping next to him on the mattress, and he touched her shoulder.

"Carter. Time to wake up." She was sleeping only lightly, and woke at once, blinking before sitting up next to him and stretching with an arch of her back that he couldn't help but watch.

He rose and crossed to the other mattress where Beth and Serena slept, and woke them both with a gentle shake of their shoulders. As he approached the couch Jake waved him off, already awake.

The five silently went about preparing for the mission. He, Carter, Beth and Jake dressed in identical security uniforms, crisp white shirts and black slacks, with close-fitting black jackets. Serena, on the hand, stood out starkly, shivering in a navy mini dress that made his paternal instincts – well honed in his years of knowing a teenage Cassandra – squirm with the urge to tell her to put on something more decent. She carried a large purse, which he knew contained her own security uniform.

Beth had a laptop bag over her shoulder, and from it pulled the tablet device that he knew would activate the first site-to-site transport.

"Everyone ready?" He asked. The others nodded. "You've got the injector?" He asked Jake directly.

"Right here." Jake pulled it from a pocket sewn into his standard-issue utility belt, and then tucked it safely back.

He looked around the group one last time, meeting each of their eyes to check they were good to go. He lingered on Sam last, seeing a familiar pre-mission steel in her eyes and feeling immensely glad that she was here to lead the other half of their two-pronged infiltration. She gave him a steady look and a nod. "We're all ready, sir."

He took a deep breath, fingers itching for the absence of his P-90, and nodded to Beth.

"Go."

A bright flash of light later, they found themselves in a narrow alley in central London. The sky was a uniform inky black, but streetlights from the road at the end of the alley cast an orange-yellow glow to the night.

Jack tapped the communicator in his ear, causing the others to wince at the resulting thumping noise, and he nodded to Serena. "Whenever you're ready, Dr Jackson."

The young woman gave them a sloppy salute and a grin, and took a few steps away from them. She messed up her hair a little, quickly applied some prosthetic make-up to her forehead at the hairline, and then closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. Then she gave them a thumbs-up, and took off in an awkward run in her high heels, disappearing around the corner.

The four were left with just their communicators to listen to Serena's progress.

After a moment they heard her burst breathlessly through the front doors of the T.U.M.'s office building, swearing in French.

"Monsieur, monsieurs, help, s'il vous plait. Please help me." She said in a flawless French accent, sounding as though she was crying.

They heard male voices muttering and then footsteps.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" A male voice asked.

"Please monsieur, they mugged me! They took my creds, they took my ID, mon Dieu, they took my phone! What am I to do? Please monsieur … oh, my head…"

"Woah, honey, why don't you sit down for a minute?"

"Maybe if I could just have a glass of water…" She sounded faint, and listless.

"Here, Joe, maybe you should get the first aid kit, she's bleeding."

"Yeah, I'll just – woah!" There was a scuffling sound.

"Easy there, sweetheart, let's get you sat down and we'll have a look at that cut on your head, and call the police."

"Thank you, _merci_ , thank you."

There were footsteps, heavy men's feet punctuated by the staccato of Serena's stiletto heels, and doors opening and closing.

"There, you just sit down here. Joe, get the first aid kit."

"You're doing great Serena, now get them to make some coffee, and slip in the sedative." Jack instructed her quietly and clearly, knowing she'd hear him in her in-ear communicator.

"You're so kind, monsieurs. Thank you so much, I don't know what I'd have done …"

"You're more than welcome, honey." Some footsteps approaching.

"Now let's have a look at that cut –"

"AH!" A man cried out in pain, and there was the sudden sound of a violent scuffle. Jack and Sam tensed, Sam looking at him with a wide-eyed, panicked expression. He shook his head and closed his fist in the wait signal, listening intently. "Serena? Do you need backup?"

More male grunts, heavy sounds of bodies dropping, and then silence. "No thanks, Jack, I'm good." Serena's voice came over the comm line a moment later.

The four in the alley breathed sighs of relief.

"What the hell just happened?" Jack asked.

"I knocked them out. Give me a minute to upload Sam's virus to the security system."

"You were supposed to drug them." Jack said irritably.

"This way was easier." Serena answered.

"Do we need to go over the chain of command again?"

"Jack, shut up, I'm concentrating."

He bit back a sharp retort and raised his eyes heavenwards, praying for patience. He met Carter eyes and mouthed ' _Jacksons'_ with an exasperated smile, and she grinned back sympathetically.

A long few moments later, there was the sound of clothing rustling, and Serena's voice came back over the comms.

"Ok, you're clear, come in to the security control room."

"Copy." Jack acknowledged, and signalled for the others to fall in behind him, knowing Carter would take up the rear behind Beth and Jake, as they'd planned. He rounded the corner, and after peeking around the corner to scope out the lobby, he entered the building. He hung a left towards the end of the lobby, and slipped into the unlocked security control room, the others on his tail.

Serena was just doing up the top button of her security officer's uniform.

"They'll be out for about six hours, I drugged them after they went down." She said, nodding a head at the men propped up against the wall, gagged, wrists and ankles bound with zip ties.

" _Nice_." Jack said appreciatively.

Sam manoeuvred around him to make a beeline for the security desk, clicking quickly through several screens. "General Carter's virus worked, the alarms are offline, and the security cameras are looping the last hour rather than recording anything new … and … yes, the lasers are offline in the server room. We're good to go."

"Ok. Everyone keep your eyes and ears open, comms on at all times, and avoid contact with any other security personnel on site. Serena, you stay here and watch our backs." He said, indicating the screens.

"Move out."


	7. Chapter 7

**Our Legacy - Chapter 7  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

Sam led Beth through the building calmly and quickly, having memorised the building's layout back in the safe-house.

"How's your British accent?" She asked in a whisper as they walked.

"It sucks. How's yours?"

"Not great. Let's hope we don't run into anyone." They had been headed up a stairwell, and stopped at the fifth floor. The entrance to the level was passcode protected, and Sam stood aside while Beth pulled another instrument out of her laptop bag.

A moment later there was a click as the mechanism unlocked, and Beth pulled the door ajar slowly, letting Sam check out the other side, before opening it all the way at Sam's nod.

Sam led them along the deserted corridor, took a left, and then another, and they reached another security door. Beth took another box from her bag, and handed it to Sam.

Sam opened the box, and took out a contact lens, fitting it to her eye and then blinking rapidly against the sting. Beth applied her device to the passcode lock again, and Sam put her eye to the retinal scanner. A few tense moments later they were admitted to the server room.

Noting that it too was deserted, Sam let Beth hurry ahead, locating the right computer bank.

She touched her communicator. "Colonel, this is Carter. We're in the server room."

A moment later, the Jack's voice was in her ear. "That's good. Any activity?"

"None, we haven't seen a soul. I'm actually a little concerned, I would have thought there should be at least some security up here."

"Yeah, we haven't seen anyone either. Just stay vigilant, and stay in contact."

"Yes sir."

She took up a guard position, as Beth began the work of downloading the files.

* * *

Jack had a constant tingling of unease in his spine. Something wasn't right, the headquarters of the T.U.M. should have more security than the average high-rent corporate office block, not _less_.

He and Jake were progressing slowly through the sub-levels of the building. There were two registered and unsecured basement levels, and then below that were the five off-books levels, where General Carter was allegedly being held. Having swept the second basement level and finding nothing and no one, they were now approaching the oh-so-clichéd secret entrance to the organisation's secret lair.

Serena's voice suddenly shouted in his ear. "Jack, Jake, abort, get out of there _now_!"

They did a one-eighty and sprinted back the way they'd come, and Jake – who had been a few meters behind Jack at the time of Serena's warning – made it round the corner ahead, out of sight.

That was some comfort to Jack as he felt the familiar agony of a zat blast discharge envelope him and send him crashing uselessly to the cheap laminate floor.

* * *

Sam heard Serena's warning, tried to hail Jack, and unsurprisingly got no response.

She turned to find Beth watching her anxiously, awaiting orders, and after a furious moment of thought Sam gestured the young woman back to work.

"Let's finish our job quickly and get back down to Serena." She said. She keyed her comms again. "Serena, what happened?"

"The security cameras have a blind spot, there were about a dozen security guards down there waiting for them. I didn't seem them until they moved towards Jack and Jake, I'm sorry."

"Not your fault. Is your position still secure?"

"Yes, as far as I can tell they have no idea I'm here. There's no one in your vicinity either. They're all concentrated below ground."

"Listen, Serena, stay in touch, and at the first sign of anyone moving towards your position, get out of the building. Beth can pull us all out with the transport at a moment's notice, but we're going to try and finish the job first."

"Understood. By the way it looks like Jake got away and has gone to ground somewhere in the lower levels."

"What?" Sam's eyes widened, and she exchanged a surprised look with Beth. "He wasn't captured with Colonel O'Neill?"

"No, he was further away from the guard position and got round the corner before they saw him. I can't raise him on comms though."

"Why not?"

"I don't know, he's just gone dark, but I saw him getting away on the cameras."

"Ok. Let me know if you spot him again."

"Will do."

* * *

Jack had managed not to lose consciousness, and tried to keep track of the route as he was dragged along by a couple of the guards who'd caught him.

He wondered idly and irritably why General Carter's master plan hadn't mentioned this, given that his understanding was everything that was happening to him had happened to her and the other Jack before.

He was just deciding that he would be having some very choice words with the good General after he found her, when he was abruptly dropped face down on a concrete floor.

"Ow." He complained loudly. He rolled over on to his back, stretching out his arms and legs slowly and trying to will his muscles to start co-operating with his brain again.

He tried his in-ear communicator. "Carter, do you copy? Carter, come in. Serena? Beth, Jake, anyone?" He got nothing, and guessed the zat blast had fried it. "Well, crap."

" _Jack_?"

He blinked a couple of times, and turned his head to the side, blinking in the darkness to try and make out the source of that voice.

"Finally." The voice said, and a figure stood shakily and walked slowly towards him, a hand leaning against the wall for support.

"Carter." He said with a sigh as he recognised her. "I understand you were expecting me."

He pushed himself up into a sitting position with difficulty, as she knelt down in front him.

She looked awful. Her face – already weathered with age – looked drawn and tired compared with the imposter's façade he'd see at the SGC. There was a lot of dried blood at her temple, and her movements were slow and shaky.

"You're here." She said, sounding like she scarcely believed it.

"So I am. You want to tell me why your brilliant plan didn't mention me getting captured?"

"If I'd told you, you would have taken steps to avoid it, and that might have changed the timeline." The older Sam said. "Things have to play out exactly the way they're supposed to. We didn't get warned about your capture, so I couldn't warn you either."

He took a second to work his way around the various pronouns of that sentence, and then shook his head to try and clear the zat-induced fuzziness.

"You ok?" He asked. "Your head looks a little …" He gestured vaguely.

"Head injury. It was a while ago, but I've still got the tail-end of a concussion." She said, touching her temple delicately.

"Have they been treating you ok? Are they feeding you?"

"I get one meal a day. It's enough. You came here with Beth, Jake and Serena?"

"And the Carter from my time. Yeah, they're all here, somewhere. Jake got away from the ambush; but you already knew that."

"Right." She looked at him with big, sad eyes, that reminded him painfully of the moment not so long ago when he'd been standing on the opposite side of Goa'uld force-field from his own Sam Carter, and she'd looked at him in the exact same way.

"I've missed you so much." She whispered.

He winced and looked down. "I'm sorry. They told me, the other me …"

"He's gone. It's just me now."

"I'm sorry." He said again. He flexed his arms and legs experimentally, pleased to find he had reasonable control of his movements again. He clambered painfully to his feet, walking around a bit to work out the last of the zat's after effects.

"So, what happens now?" He asked. He saw something steely fall into place in her expression, Sam's pain being completely overwritten by the General's professionalism.

"Now we wait. I take it Jake had the subcutaneous transmitter injector?"

"Yes."

"He and the girls will get it to us, and we'll all get out of here. We just have to wait."

Jack sighed, and sat down. "Ok. Waiting it is."


	8. Chapter 8

**Our Legacy - Chapter 8  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

"Sam? You have to get out of there, you've got incoming." Serena's voice came over the comms.

Beth looked up at her with panic. "I'm not done yet, I need another five minutes."

"How many?" Sam asked Serena.

"Five – no, six. Oh crap, and two more are coming my way."

"Get out of there right now. Get clear of the building." Sam ordered her.

"I'm going – Sam, they're coming up the stairs – you don't have an escape route."

"Let me worry about that, you just get out, you hear me?"

"Ok, I'm going now. Be careful, and good luck."

"You too." Sam turned back to Beth. "You need five minutes?"

Beth nodded.

"Ok, I'll try and buy you some time. Once you're done, activate the transporter and get us out of here. We'll have to regroup and come up with a new rescue plan."

"Mom, you can't face them on your own!" Beth protested.

"I'll be fine, just keep working."

She went back to the door, and opened it a fraction. She could hear the men in the distance – they'd made the top of the stairs.

She closed the door behind and crept along the corridor, taking up position behind a door a little way further along, adrenaline rushing in her ears. She waited until their footfalls were right outside, and then pushed the door open with an explosion of energy. It impacted one of the men with a bone-jarring thud, and she flung herself round it to send a right hook into the jaw of another.

He fell, but another had reacted too quickly, and seized her from behind. She sent an elbow back at his face, but he twisted and she missed, the momentum sending her falling to the floor. There were still four men up on their feet, and all their attention was now on her.

 _Well that's just fine._ Sam thought. _As long as they focus on me, and don't go looking for Beth._

She shoved herself backwards, away from them, and then leapt to her feet, adopting a fighting stance. Two of them rushed her and she dropped and rolled out of the way, coming up to the side and slamming a fist into the kidney of the closest man. He grunted and dropped to his knees, and she dodged out of the way as the other lunged for her again. The other two were on her now though, and the three of them cornered her.

They hesitated though, and she grinned. "What are you waiting for boys?" She taunted.

They looked at each other in confusion, and she suddenly realised what was rattling them – she bore a startling resemblance to their ageing prisoner downstairs.

She took advantage of their hesitation and attacked, kicking the rightmost man and seizing his arm to throw him sprawling to the floor, before leaping over him and making to run away. The others recovered too quickly though and she was tackled, landing hard on the floor on her stomach.

She struggled, but the remaining men were both on her now, and the one she'd kicked was back on his feet too.

Sam had lost.

"Call for backup." The one on top of her ordered.

One of the goons reached for his radio, but it was abruptly kicked out of his hand.

Sam looked up in shock as Jake sailed over her head, knocking out the two guards on their feet and then pulling the other one off of her. He kicked the man in the stomach and then punched, and he dropped, unconscious.

Jake offered Sam a hand, and she took it gratefully, regaining her feet.

"Thanks." She said.

"No problem. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. Why haven't you been answering your comms?"

"I lost my communicator, it fell out of my ear when I was running from the ambush. They caught Dad –"

Sam nodded. "We know. Serena saw them take him. Her position was compromised though, so she's had to get out. We're blind."

"Where's Beth?"

"Back in the server room. She needs a few more minutes to finish the file download, then we're going to get out of here."

"But what about Mom?" Jake asked urgently.

"The mission's blown Jake, they know we're here. It's only a matter of time before they send more guys up here after us, and those will have zats, or worse. We're unarmed, we can't take them."

"We can't just leave her here, the whole point was to rescue her."

"We'll regroup at the safe-house and come up with a new plan."

"But this one was supposed to work! She planned it, and she's done all of this before!"

"Well something obviously went wrong. We have to get out with the evidence while we still can."

"Hey!" Beth's voice suddenly came from behind her. She jogged towards them, closing the laptop bag as she went.

"Are you done?" Sam asked.

"I've got it." Beth said, patting the bag. "But we can't leave yet."

Sam sighed brusquely. "We don't have a choice, we've been made."

"I know, but I've got an idea. I know how we can still save Mom."

* * *

Jack sat leaning against the wall in the cell, side by side with General Sam Carter.

"So … I have a question." Jack started.

"Just one?" The General asked teasingly with a smile.

"Why no weapons? A zat, or even a knife, would have come in very handy."

"They have weapon detection systems." She answered. "Your cover would have been blown instantly."

"Carter thought that would be the reason." He admitted begrudgingly. "Ok, another question. Why not stipulate in the plan that I take the transmitter injector thingy? I could have just injected you with the transmitter right now, job done."

"They'd have found it on you when you were captured. Didn't they frisk you?"

"Oh … right." He thought for another moment. "Well, why didn't you inject yourself before they captured you in the first place?"

"They scanned me for transmitters when they captured me. They cut out the official one I had in my arm." She said, pushing up her sleeve and showing him a red scar on her forearm.

"Ouch." He said, sympathetically.

"Yeah, that wasn't fun." She said with a wince. "Plus, these transmitters are special. I coded them to only work with the transports I pre-programmed into Beth's tablet. It's the most secure means of transporting us all out possible, and can't be traced, blocked or hijacked. I didn't want that falling into the wrong hands."

"There's the Carter I know." Jack smirked fondly.

Sam smiled at him, a wide, genuine, open smile that startled him. She was looking at him like she knew him better than he knew himself, and loved him anyway. It was the smile of a woman who'd been his wife.

He looked away, feeling awkward and a little disturbed. "Sorry." He said, not sure what he was apologising for.

"Don't be." She said, and her tone made him look back at her. The steel shutters had come down behind the General's eyes again, blocking that glimpse he'd had of _Sam_.

"So … I have to ask. Why on Earth would a woman like you marry a chump like me?" He asked lightly.

Sam chuckled. "You have your moments."

"Ah, so I tricked you."

She laughed. "You couldn't if you tried."

She met his eyes then, a serious expression on her face. "She loves you. She has done for a long while, and she will do for the rest of her life. You'll marry her, and you'll have two beautiful children, and you'll be happy. But –" she held up a finger, "you have to wait for it. You have to win the war first."

"Win the war?" Jack repeated. "You mean with the Goa'uld?"

General Carter just smiled sagely. "Don't break the regs, and don't quit before the job's done. Earth is still more important. Just take comfort in the knowledge that you'll get what you want eventually."

Jack looked at her for a long moment, feeling a little shell-shocked. "I can do that." He said eventually.

"Good." She said, leaning her head back against the wall and closing her eyes tiredly, and in the dim light of the room the dark stain of dried blood stood out starkly on her temple and cheek against her fair skin and dyed-blonde hair.

"How are you doing?" He asked.

"I'll be fine. This is far from my first concussion."

"Just … keep me posted. Let me know if it starts getting worse."

She reached out and patted his knee, with her eyes still closed. "Don't fret Colonel. Neither of us die on this one, I promise."

He blew out a tense breath and chuckled ruefully.

"Whatever you say, General."


	9. Chapter 9

**Our Legacy - Chapter 9  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

"No." Sam said emphatically. "It's way too risky."

"It'll work! Just think about it, Mom must have known this was going to happen, and she knew we'd figure out a way to save her anyway, that's why she didn't warn us. It'll work because it already has done – we can't fail because we've already succeeded!" Beth argued.

"You know, you can only take that argument so far." Sam said, feeling strained.

"No, she's right." Jake said. "We know for a fact that this mission is a success, which means we have to do everything we can to try and complete it, even if the odds look bad."

Sam took a few steps away, thinking. She understood the argument, and knew she'd be making the same one in Beth and Jake's positions, but she felt the weighty responsibility of holding General Carter's children's lives in her hands, and was reluctant to take any risks with them.

On the other hand, they were right. And she could take steps to minimise the risk to them.

"Ok." She said after a long moment. "We'll do it. But – I'll be the one who goes down there. You two stay hidden up here with the transporter tablet, ready to get us out if it goes bad."

Beth and Jake looked at each other, and then nodded. "Ok."

"Go and hide, get out of sight, and keep that transporter tablet safe – if we lose that we're screwed, and all this will have been for nothing."

"We've got it." Jake said confidently. He pulled the transmitter injector from his belt. "Here. You'll need this."

He dropped it into her palm, and she tucked it safely away. "Go."

"Good luck." Beth said, and she and Jake took off, deeper into the building.

Sam took a deep breath, and headed back to the stairs. This was a very, very risky play – but she had to have faith in her future self's judgement, and trust that it would all work out.

The first part was arguably the most dangerous: getting down to the building's sublevels without being caught. She knew there were at least six or so guards left in the building – probably more. And at least one – probably more – was armed with a zat.

There were two ways down – the stairs or the elevator. The elevator was too risky. It was the dead of night, eerily silent, and anyone down there would hear the elevator coming. Which left the stairs.

She made the top of the stairs without incident, and proceeded downwards, quickly but cautiously, ready to defend herself if needs be. When she reached the ground floor, she breathed a sigh of relief, and peeked through the window in the door that led to the lobby. She would need to pass through it to access the staircase that led down into the sub-levels.

No one was in the lobby itself, but she could see on the other side of the lobby the door to the security control room was open, and there was activity inside – the guys Serena had knocked out had been found. She watched for a moment, trying to judge whether she could get in and out of the lobby without being seen.

The best she could do was a maybe.

Deciding that would have to do, she slowly, carefully, pushed the door open. When it was open enough for her to get through, she slipped in, and carefully closed it behind her. Then she edged around the corner towards the corridor that led to the basement staircase, forcing herself not to move so quickly that she'd catch someone's attention.

With every step she was sure she'd hear the tell tale sounds of discovery, but she made the end of the corridor without incident, and pulled the door open with relief.

There were guards on the stairs. _Crap._

She ducked out of sight quickly, listening intently. They hadn't seen her. They were, however, blocking her path down. She looked around, trying to find another option.

Fortunately, dumb luck was on her side.

A male, British voice announced on their radios that the group of guards who'd been sent to check on the server level had failed to report in, and could this group go after them? They moved quickly up the last few stairs, passed her hiding place, and exited into the lobby.

Sam peeked around the corner once more, and was relieved to find the stairs now blessedly empty. Down the stairs, and she started looking for her next target – an air vent. She found an access point in a side room, and pulled a table under it so that she could reach. The screwdriver that General Carter had put in her utility belt suddenly made a whole lot of sense, and she grinned as she fished it out and used it to unscrew the panel.

Once the panel was off, she pulled herself up into the vent. It was a tight fit, but manageable.

Now all she had to do was find her way through the vents to General Carter's cell.

* * *

"How long has it been since they captured you?" General Carter asked Jack.

"They took my watch, but I would guess, about an hour."

"Won't be much longer then." She said. "Keep an eye on that air vent."

Jack looked around, and spotted the air vent in the ceiling. "Why, what's it going to do?" He asked warily.

"That, my dear Colonel, is the door through which our salvation will come. Just keep an eye on it."

He did.

Nothing happened.

After ten minutes of nothing happening, he looked at the General askance, wondering if she was having him on, as a means to entertain herself and pass the time. That's when he heard a muffled thump and a curse from directly above his head.

He stood, looking up at the air vent. "Hello?" He whispered.

There was a beat of silence, then: "Colonel?"

"Carter! We're down here!"

There was a scuffling sound as she wriggled and crawled the last few feet towards the vent, and then the sound of metal on metal – she was unscrewing the panel. He took up position, ready to catch it, and thanked their lucky stars that the commotion in the building had limited the guard-posts to outside the room, rather than inside as well.

She released the last screw and he caught the panel as it swung free. Her youthful face appeared in the hole.

"Hi sir." She grinned. Her gaze wondered over to the General. "Ma'am." The General snorted in unladylike mirth at the honorific from her younger self.

Sam wriggled around a bit, and then reached down to Jack, with something in her hand. "The injector." She explained.

Jack took it from her. He caught her hand before she withdrew it, and gave it a quick squeeze. "Thanks Carter."

She looked at him curiously at the uncharacteristic act of affection, and then propped herself up on her elbows. "I _would_ think I should get out of here before we get caught, but as long as you get that transmitter into the General, it won't matter."

Jack nodded and headed over to the older woman, injector in hand.

"This is supposed to go in your upper arm." He said, gesturing to her long sleeved shirt.

"Fine." She sighed, and unbuttoned it enough that it would pull down over her left shoulder, displaying a bit more of her senior-citizen's body than he was entirely comfortable with seeing. The General smirked in the direction of the vent with narrowed eyes. "That's right, Major, this will be you one day."

He heard Carter clear her throat nervously and shift around uncomfortably, and he chuckled as he pressed the injector into the senior Carter's upper arm. "Be nice." He said.

The General took a sharp breath as the injector pierced her skin, and then it was done.

Jack withdrew, and the General did her blouse buttons back up. He looked between the two Carters expectantly. "So … that's it?"

"That's it." Sam nodded. She touched her ear. "Beth, do you copy?"

There was a beat of silence – Jack's communicator of course was no longer in any condition to pick up Beth's response, if there was one.

She obviously had responded though, because a moment later Carter continued. "The mission was a success, General Carter has the transmitter – we're ready to go."

Carter met his eyes again and nodded. He looked at his boots and breathed a sigh of relief.

There was a bright flash of light, and the three of them were gone.


	10. Chapter 10

**Our Legacy - Chapter 10  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

* * *

Sam – who had been in the air vent – found herself laying on her stomach on the freezing warehouse floor. She leapt to her feet to escape the icy surface, almost colliding with Jake as he and Beth rushed to the General's side.

She confirmed with a look that Serena was in one piece, and then stepped to the Colonel's side.

"Are you alright, sir?"

"I'm good." He said distractedly, watching the family re-union taking place in front of him. Perhaps sensing her continued scrutiny, he continued. "They zatted me, that's all."

She nodded and turned to face the General and her children with him. They were helping the General to her feet, and Sam noted with concern the blood on her forehead and her general unsteadiness.

"How bad is her concussion?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. She does an even better 'I'm fine' act than you do." Jack said, meeting her eyes with a smirk.

Sam resisted rolling her eyes, and decided to go and find the first aid kit. She stopped short at the sound of a car pulling up outside, meeting the Colonel's eyes with alarm.

"Relax." The General said. "It's Cassie."

"Cassie?" Jack repeated.

"She knew about this?" Beth asked, sounding confused and hurt. "I thought it was just me."

"It _was_ just you." The General assured her gently. "I made arrangements more than a year in advance for a message to be delivered to Cassie on September 9th, to tell her to come here. She's brought medical supplies."

"I'll go and meet her outside." Serena said, jogging for the door.

The General, propped up on either side by her children, met Sam and Jack's eyes.

"Thank you for the rescue." She said, with feeling.

"Always." Jack said softly. Sam's heart gave a tug, and she looked at him to find him looking right back at her with a small smile. A tiny noise that could have been a sob came from the General, and then she cleared her throat and said: "Cassie."

A middle-aged Cassie in jeans and a parka was jogging towards them, Serena following behind carrying a big paramedic's bag.

"Sam! What the hell is going on?" Cassie asked, going straight to the General and examining her head wound with gentle hands.

"Cassie, we have guests." The General said, nodding towards Sam and Jack. Cassie spun around, her jaw dropping open when she saw them.

"Woah." She said, in a tone so reminiscent of their own fifteen year old Cassie that Sam couldn't help but grin.

"Hi Cassie."

Cassie looked from her to Jack and back again, several times, eyes wide, and speechless.

"They're from the past, from the year 2000." General Carter explained. "They helped rescue me."

"Ok." Cassie said slowly. "I'm going to need a bit more information."

"How about we all move upstairs and you take a look at Mom's head first?" Beth suggested firmly. "Then we'll explain everything."

Cassie's gaze lingered on Jack, who nodded at her in agreement with Beth's proposal.

"Fine." She said, turning back to her patient. "Jake, would you carry her please?"

Major Sam Carter didn't know whether to laugh or sympathise with General Sam Carter's outraged reaction to that suggestion.

* * *

One medical examination and one long explanation later, the six of them - minus Sam who was at a computer studying a long document the General had given her, to help her prepare for this event in her own future - were seated comfortably upstairs, sharing a meal.

"What happens now?" Jack asked General Carter.

The General swallowed her mouthful of food, and then looked up at him. "Now, Cassie drives the kids home, and the three of us go straight to the IOA with our intel. I have a transport programmed to take us straight into the IOA's headquarters in Washington D.C."

"We should come with you." Beth argued. "What if you need back up?"

"Then I'll have the Colonel and Major here to back me up." The General said, smiling reassuringly at her daughter. "You've done an amazing job, honey, but this next task is mine."

"How sure are you that the IOA themselves haven't been compromised by the TUM?" Jack asked, seeing a flaw in this plan.

"Oh, I'm certain a few of them have been." The General answered breezily. "But not all of them, and thanks to Beth's work in the server room we now know exactly who has been replaced with imposters."

Realisation dawned in Jack's mind. "That's what you were downloading?" He asked Beth. "A list of the people who've been kidnapped and replaced?"

"Among other things, yes." Beth said. "I can't take much credit though, it was Mom's instructions that told me exactly which server to target and where to look for the files."

"Are my parents on that list?" Serena asked tensely.

"No, I had a quick look through while Cassie was patching up Mom." Beth assured her. "Your mom and dad are still … your mom and dad."

Serena relaxed visibly.

"Does that mean we can drop in on Daniel?" Jack asked hopefully, hoping to get a good look at exactly how his friend had aged – for mocking purposes when he got back to the year 2000, of course.

"Best not." The General answered. "We're playing fast and loose with the timeline as it is, let's not make any unnecessary side-trips."

"D'oh." He muttered. "When do we leave?"

"Right now." The General pushed away her empty plate and stood. "We have to assume that the TUM have realised I've been rescued, and are warning my imposter. We should get to the IOA before she has a chance to escape. Major?" She called, and Sam reluctantly shut down her computer and came to join the others.

The General turned to Beth, Jake, and Serena. "Don't worry about packing up the safe house, we'll take care of that later. Go home with Cassie, and wait there until you here from me."

"Be careful, Mom." Jake said, frowning.

"You too." She smiled, and hugged each of them. She looked at Cassie. "You have the equipment I told you about in the message?"

"The zats, secure cellphone, fake IDs and cred cards, and emergency transport activator? Yeah, I picked it up from your security deposit box on the way here. It's all in the car."

"Ok. You shouldn't need any of it, but it's best to be safe. Go, be careful, and if you run into any trouble use that cellphone to call me."

Cassie nodded, and the four of them reluctantly left. Beth and Jake both waved shyly to Jack and Sam as they went, and Jack felt a pang of regret to see his future children leave, knowing he probably wouldn't see them again until they were born.

The upper room of the warehouse felt empty with only Jack, Sam, and the General left. "I trust you found the safe and the time travel device?" The General asked them.

"We did, and the device is still secured down there in the safe." Sam answered.

"Go and get it. We won't be coming back here before you leave."

Sam nodded and disappeared down the stairs.

The General gave Jack a long, unreadable look.

"Any last minute advice, or warnings?" Jack asked. "Anything along the lines of 'when the time comes, cut the red wire'?"

Sam smiled and shook her head. "Just trust your gut. You'll be fine."

Jack shifted awkwardly on his feet. "They seem like great kids."

"They are." She said. She suddenly seemed to remember something, and went over to one of the desks, opening a drawer and removing something. She walked back over to him, and handed him a recent picture of Beth, Jake and Serena.

His Carter came up the stairs behind him, the time travel device in her hands, and she looked at the picture he was holding.

"To remember them by. Until you meet them again." The General said with a smile.

"Thank you." Sam said.

The General nodded and held out a hand for the time travel device. Sam handed it over, and the General stowed it in a duffel bag, which she handed to Jack.

"Don't let that out of your sight." She warned him.

"Wouldn't dream of it."

She handed Sam the laptop bag which Beth had carried on the rescue mission, and then produced another transport activator tablet.

"Stand ready." She ordered.

They disappeared in a flash of light.


	11. Chapter 11

**Our Legacy - Chapter 11  
**

 _Disclaimer: I do not own these characters nor profit from their use - I merely toy with them for my own amusement._  
 _Summary: A gate accident strands Jack and Sam in the year 2034, when the SGC is under the command of General Samantha Carter. But all is not as it seems, and to get home, they first need to save the world._

 _Author's note: This is the final chapter - but the story continues! At the moment I am writing a series of episode tags to follow on from this, in a Fic entitled 'Our Legacy 2 - Episode Tags'. I know, imaginative title isn't it.  
_

* * *

To say their appearance came as something of a surprise to the IOA would be an understatement. Jack and the two Carters materialised in what appeared to be a boardroom, in the middle of a meeting. There were screams, people in suits scrambled away from them, and armed guards were in the room and aiming at them before more than a handful of seconds had passed.

"Please remain calm." General Carter said, in a reassuringly authoritative tone. "I am General Samantha Carter, the Commander of the SGC."

A flushed and harried looking man in an expensive grey suit stepped forward. "General Carter? What are you doing here? And how on _Earth_ did you manage to transport in here? We have transport interdiction fields up that should make it impossible for anyone to transport into this building!"

"I know you do, I designed them." The General said with a wry smile. "I apologise for startling you all, however, unfortunately this is an emergency situation."

The assembled directors of the IOA calmed down, and regained their seats looking ruffled. The guards lowered their weapons and resumed their posts outside the room.

"General, would you mind explaining who your companions are?" The same man asked. "Because if I didn't know better I'd say that one was you, twenty years ago." He pointed at Sam.

"They're the time travellers." A woman at the table spoke up. "General Carter reported that a version of herself and General Jack O'Neill had arrived through the stargate from the year 2000 in a time travel accident."

"This is Colonel Jack O'Neill and Major Samantha Carter. They have indeed accidentally travelled forward in time by thirty-four years. However, that is actually not the situation I'm here to brief you about." She nodded to Sam, who set the laptop bag down on the table and opened it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it may or may not surprise you to learn that the organisation known as the Tau'ri Unification Movement have been taking illegal actions to seize control of the IOA from within. They have been kidnapping key personnel, and have been using the Mimic devices developed at Area 51 to replace those people. I have here a list of the people who have been kidnapped and replaced … and that list includes myself."

There was an outburst of voices as people reacted to this, and the General held up her hand for silence.

"Let me assure you that I am the 'real' General Carter. I was kidnapped some months ago, and was rescued a few hours ago by the Colonel and Major here. As far as I am aware my imposter is even now still in place at the SGC, but our time is short. She will learn of my escape soon. We need to act now to capture her, and to capture the other people on this list – and rescue the people they are impersonating."

"General Carter, you can't possibly expect us to believe – "

"Let me save us some time by highlighting the second, seventh and twelth names on the list, Emilia Broderick, Rajan Chakrabarti, and Nigel Powell, who are all sitting at this table." She said, cutting off Mr Powell's objection. "I suggest that you take them into custody immediately."

The three people in question all objected loudly, but their colleagues sided with the General. Jack was pleased to see the level of trust they had in her.

"We will need to verify this information, General." One man pointed out.

"That's simple enough." General Carter said, holding out a hand to Sam. From the laptop bag, Sam withdrew a small device that looked like some sort of radio, and passed it to the General.

"This device emits a sound wave at a frequency which disrupts the illusion generated by the Mimic device. Watch." She turned it on, and Ms Broderick, Mr Chakrabarti, and Mr Powell all flicked and changed before their eyes, into completely different people.

They were seized by guards at a quick order from the man chairing the meeting, and taken away.

"What do you propose we do?" The same man asked.

"Brief an IOA assault team, and transport them and us directly into the SGC, where we can apprehend the false General Carter. Have a team deployed for each person on this list. Once we have the imposters, we can find out where the originals are being held, and rescue them."

"General, there is a transport interdiction field up around the SGC. Can I assume that you can punch through the SGC's field just as you did ours?"

"I can do it, that's not a problem." The assembled group didn't look particularly comfortable with that pronouncement.

"And what about your friends here?"

"Once we've secured the SGC, we can send them home."

"You can do that?" A woman asked. "You can actually send them back in time?"

"Of course I can." The General replied with a self-satisfied smile that made her younger self dip her head in embarrassment. Jack smirked at the pair of them.

"Carter and I can help brief your assault teams, to save time." He offered.

"Alright. General, I trust you can make the necessary arrangements?"

"With your permission, gentlemen, ladies?"

The assembled group all nodded their assent, and General Carter nodded back and strode from the room quickly, beckoning Jack and Sam to follow.

They had work to do.

* * *

Jack, Major Carter, General Carter, and the IOA assault team were transported into the gate room with a flash, in full combat gear. General Carter immediately announced herself to the airmen and technicians on duty in the gateroom and control room, and started issuing orders. It didn't take long to ascertain that the other General Carter – the imposter – had headed up to her office to take an urgent phone call moments before.

The group ran for the stairs, and Jack reached the General's office just in time to see a flash of blue uniform as she fled out the opposite door. He tore after her with the two genuine Carters hot on his heels.

Given that the woman he was pursuing was currently in heels, a dress uniform, and was clearly not in top physical condition, he caught up to her easily, restraining her with her arms behind her back.

"What is the meaning of this? Colonel O'Neill, I am ordering you to release me."

"I don't think so." He said.

He looked up and abruptly realised he was holding one Carter, and facing two others. "My life is weird." He commented, bemused.

Major Carter looked at him like he'd lost his mind, and General Carter rolled her eyes at him and gestured to a couple of the assault team guys behind her. "Take her to the briefing room." She ordered.

The two men in black uniforms took the false General's arms from Jack's grip, and she was manhandled back into the briefing room, struggling weakly all the way.

In the briefing room, Major Carter opened the duffel bag she'd been carrying, and took out the device which emitted the correct frequency to disrupt the mimic device. She turned it on, and the false General's image flickered, vanishing to reveal a woman in her early fifties.

"Who are you?" General Carter demanded.

The woman didn't answer the question, but raised her chin haughtily. "You should know General, that no one ever questioned my identity. No one cares for you or knows you well enough to notice when you've been kidnapped and replaced with an imposter. You are nothing."

General Carter chuckled. "I'm afraid that was a subterfuge for your benefit. You were my pawn. Gentlemen, take her away."

General Carter, Jack, and Sam were left alone in the briefing room.

"She wasn't entirely wrong." The General said in a small, strained voice. "I warned Beth, and she went to great lengths to ensure that Jake was never given the chance to suspect … but there is no one else who noticed in the months that I was gone."

Jack frowned, and he saw Sam look down at her hands uncomfortably.

The General shook herself and turned to face them both, visibly pulling her professionalism back into place. "On the other hand, I'm a widowed old woman in a command position, and that imposter was trained for years to evade detection. It's only to be expected, and I have a great deal for which to be grateful. My children, most of all. They're our legacy."

"They seem to think a great deal of you." Jack said.

"They're good kids." The General gave him a smile. She sighed. "And now, I suppose it's time for you to go."

"We should probably get out of here before we risk compromising the timeline even more than we have already." Sam said. The General smiled at her warmly.

"Well, I for one have very much enjoyed seeing you both. It makes me miss the good old days on SG-1." She shooed them away. "Go and get back into your own gear, and I'll send you home."

* * *

Uniforms duly changed, Jack and Sam met in the armoury to reclaim their packs, tac vests, holsters and weapons. They clipped each other's packs on, and Jack handed Sam her P90, lingering for a moment before releasing it to her so that she'd look at him.

"So … we should probably have a conversation before we go home." He started uncertainly.

She averted her eyes nervously, clipping on her weapon. "Yes sir, I guess we probably should."

"She – General Carter – said something to me when we were in the cell, waiting. She said we have to keep doing what we're doing, on SG-1. She said we have to win the war first."

He watched as her eyes widened in realisation. "We're going to win?"

"So I gather. And then …"

"And then – Beth and Jake."

"Right." He grinned. She grinned back at him. Something stirred in his belly. "Aw, hell."

He let his P90 hang on its clips, and cradled her face in his hands, capturing her lips for a fierce, passionate kiss. She kissed him back with just as much fire, and he deepened it, sliding his tongue against hers and pushing her back against the wall. After a long, blissful moment he groaned and pulled back, leaning his forehead against hers with his eyes closed, breathing hard.

"I don't suppose she mentioned _exactly_ how long it will be …?" Sam asked in a whisper.

"Nope." He answered.

"We're thirty-four years in the future, and Beth is … what, twenty-six? Twenty-seven?"

"Don't try and figure it out, Sam. She was very specific on that point, we just have to be good soldiers and wait until the war is won."

He released her and stepped back. He felt bereft without the contact, and held his P90 again so that he'd have something to do with his hands.

"We can do that." Sam said, sounding disappointed, but confident.

He held her gaze with a smile and nodded, and then took a deep breath. "Ready to go home?"

She looked at him, open and unguarded, and smiled sadly. "Yes sir."

He felt the 'sir' like a knife in the gut, but returned the gentle look, and canted his head towards the door. "Then let's go."

* * *

General Carter was waiting for them in the gate room.

"When I activate the device, a wormhole will form which will send you straight back to the SGC, on March 31st, in the year 2000, at the time when you should have arrived on your journey from Tollana. You should send your IDC in the usual way before entering the wormhole. Remember, you cannot tell anyone about your time here. It has to be a secret between the two of you until you are ready to tell Beth, in preparation for these events."

"We understand." Sam said. "We won't let you down."

The General smiled warmly. "That would be literally impossible, Sam." She embraced Sam, leaving the younger woman with a distinctly weird feeling, and then pulled back, still smiling. "Try to have a little fun now and then. I'll see you in the mirror in thirty-four years."

The General turned to Jack, her smile muting to a sadder tone. "I hope this isn't the last time I'll see your face, Jack, but in case it is …" She gave him a fierce hug, and he turned his face into her neck. She smelled like his Sam. She was his Sam, he supposed … just with more history.

She pulled back, and sniffed, forcing her smile back into place, and turned her attention back to the time travel device. After a moment, the wormhole established. Sam frowned, looking at the device askance. "Is that Knox technology by any chance?"

The General put her fingers to her lips in a shushing gesture, eyes twinkling.

"Go on." She said. "Go make sure my children get born."

Sam looked at Jack, who had just sent the IDC, as he saluted the General. "Yes ma'am."

He turned back to Sam, and they approached the wormhole, stopping at the threshold.

"Together?" He asked.

"Together." She agreed.

And together they stepped through the gate, leaving General Carter standing alone on the ramp.

* * *

 _Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! It always makes me smile to see your lovely comments, and to know that people are enjoying my story. Thank you!_


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